The Smoky Mountain News does a good job of outlining the struggle in another western N.C. mountain town, Waynesville, between progressive town government and the rage of developers who resent any restrictions or local performance standards.
Though we admit that the "mild grumbling" of developers in Waynesville holds no candle to the loud-mouthed roar we've been treated to in Boone.
It's the still, small voice of town-dwellers, hither and thither, that may end up speaking loudest: "We want growth planned and controlled." The citizens have been saying that consistently and insistently in the most unlikely places, as in the mountain towns and counties of North Carolina.
Trying to out-scream and out-spend and out-smear everybody may work in the short-term, but the screamers and spenders and smearers are mounting their self-interests against a growing tide of community solidarity. If the future belongs to selfishness and profit alone, then we have seriously misplaced our faith in American democracy.
Thursday, October 04, 2007
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